Moriya held over taking bribes / Prosecutors also arrest wife, plan to search Defense Ministry

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Prosecutors on Wednesday arrested former Administrative Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya on suspicion of taking bribes from Motonobu Miyazaki, former senior managing director of defense contractor Yamada Corp.

They are set to search the Defense Ministry on Thursday at the earliest to uncover the whole picture of the crime.

Prosecutors also arrested Moriya's wife, Sachiko, 56, as an accomplice in the alleged bribe-taking. The Penal Code stipulates that a person can be charged with complicity in a bribery case even if he or she is not a government employee.


Photo: Former Administrative Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya leaves his house in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, on Wednesday, after being asked by prosecutors to turn himself in voluntarily for questioning.

The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said Moriya, 63, and his wife were lavishly entertained--specifically referring to the couple being treated to golf outings valued at 3.89 million yen--and it is suspected Moriya returned the favor by helping Yamada win defense equipment procurement contracts.

Also Wednesday, Miyazaki, 69, was rearrested on suspicion of giving bribes to Moriya.

Moriya had earlier admitted that his being entertained was tantamount to accepting bribes to The Yomiuri Shimbun. He has now reportedly admitted the allegation to prosecutors. Miyazaki reportedly has also admitted to most of the other allegations brought against him.

Prosecutors searched Moriya's home in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, on the day.

Moriya is the fourth administrative vice minister to be arrested on suspicion of taking bribes while in office.

Notable past bribery cases involved Kunio Takaishi, then vice education minister, and Takashi Kato, then vice labor minister, who were arrested for allegedly taking bribes in the Recruit shares-for-favors scandal in the late 1980s, and Nobuharu Okamitsu, then health and welfare vice minister, who was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes in connection with construction of government subsidized nursing homes in 1996.

Moriya left his house for questioning Wednesday morning at the request of prosecutors.

The investigators allege Moriya and his wife were treated to golf outings, including trips to Hokkaido and Fukuoka Prefecture, worth about 3.89 million yen in total, on a dozen occasions between August 2003 and May 2005, knowing that the entertainment provided by Miyazaki was intended to gain favorable treatment for his company in the disbursement of defense equipment procurement contracts.

The contracts included one for the purchase of General Electric Co.'s engine for the Air Self-Defense Force's next-generation CX transport plane in 2005.

The prosecutors investigated the golf outings provided by Miyazaki to Moriya over the past five years, the period covered by the statute of limitations for bribe-taking charges. They deemed the occasions on which Moriya let Miyazaki pay for travel and accommodation expenses as a form of bribery in connection with duties of the top defense bureaucrat.

The amount of expenses for the golf trips go beyond a range that society would deem acceptable, the prosecutors judged.

They also determined that Moriya's wife was an accomplice, as she must have recognized the golf outings as bribes to her husband, according to investigation sources.

The entertainment to Moriya, including golf outings and wining and dining, totaled more than 5 million yen over the five years.

Most of the trips took place over three days and two nights, and were paid through Yamada's expenses.

Of them, one trip started on Aug. 9, 2003, the day after the then Defense Agency's committee in charge of choosing defense equipment, which was chaired by Moriya, decided which engine to use for the CX plane.

According to sources, in addition to entertainment, Moriya received a total of 4 million yen in cash from Miyazaki over several occasions in 2004 and 2006, when he was administrative vice defense minister.

Investigators have already found that Tokyo-based Yamada and its U.S. division, Yamada International Corp., amassed slush funds over many years.

Prosecutors on Wednesday indicted Miyazaki, who was arrested on Nov. 8 on suspicion of embezzling about 117 million yen from Yamada in June 2006. During questioning by the prosecutors, he reportedly told investigators that he used the secret funds to pay Moriya.

According to sources, the 4 million yen was part of slush funds pooled in a bank account under the name of Osamu Akiyama, former president of Yamada International, and was transferred over three occasions to bank accounts of Moriya's wife and another relative.

Tomonari Imaji, a former Yamada executive who also was arrested on Nov. 8 on suspicion of counterfeiting company documents for the embezzlement plot, also was indicted Wednesday.

It was earlier discovered that Moriya played golf and was otherwise entertained on more than 300 occasions over the past 11 years.

Moriya joined the then Defense Agency in 1971 and took such posts as the chief of the agency's secretariat and the Defense Policy Bureau chief. He served as the administrative vice defense minister for about four years until August.

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Fukuda: Ministry reform needed

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda emphasized Wednesday night that the government will compile measures to prevent the recurrence of cases like the Moriya one.

"It's quite regrettable. This kind of thing should not have happened. We have to proceed with reform of the Defense Ministry," Fukuda said.

As well as stressing the need to enforce the official disciplinary measures of the ministry and the Self-Defense Forces, Fukuda said he would ask an expert panel concerning the ministry's reform to study some preventive measures. The first meeting of the panel is scheduled for next week.

Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba held a separate press conference Wednesday night and apologized to the public.

"I apologize to the public, as the confidence in the defense administration has been damaged. We'd like to start from scratch with a discussion on the procurement of equipment. We also need to rethink the way trading companies work as middlemen," Ishiba said, emphasizing a stance to implement drastic reform in the defense equipment procurement methods.

On the point that Ishiba himself appointed Moriya as the administrative vice defense minister under the administration of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, he said, "The responsibility for appointing him to the post rests with me."

(Nov. 29, 2007)